In a wireless networks, such as wireless wide area network (WWAN), such as WiMAX, LTE, etc., a Mobile Station (MS) needs to request bandwidth from a BS (Base Station) before it can transmit packets stored in its uplink (UL) queue. In the bandwidth request message, an MS indicates the number of bytes a BS should allocate, also called grant size. There are two ways to request bandwidth: contention and piggyback. The contention method is less reliable and has larger delay variation, because multiple MSs may contend at the same time and the bandwidth request message may be lost due to collision. The piggyback method allows an MS to send a bandwidth request message with the data transmission that has been allocated by a BS to the individual MS. It is much more efficient than the contention method.
In both cases, the MS usually sets the grant size of the bandwidth request message to the total number of bytes in the uplink (UL) queue so that it can transmit all the packets as soon as possible. However, if a packet arrives in the future when the queue is empty, the MS can only use the less efficient contention method.
Thus, a strong need exists for partial bandwidth request techniques in wireless networks.
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